The Marriage Game
by Kitahoshi
Summary: Their marriage was a sham, but it continued to exist." Inoue wants to help Ishida, but ends up getting more than she bargained for. Ishida x Inoue


Their marriage was a sham, but it continued to exist. Orihime was uncertain as to how fate had pulled her into such a strange event without her suspicion. Inoue Orihime's special skill was intuition, and she was actually rather bright. So the reasoning for how she ended up married at twenty when she had never intended to marry at all was a mystery.

She continued to walk down the stairs to catch the underground train while pondering it over, again. She realized, that to further inspect into how circumstances became what they were, she would need to go back to the beginning of it all. She closed her gray eyes wearily as she stood on the moving train, thinking about how blue his eyes had been that day. That day that changed their lives.

* * *

"Inoue-san, please don't worry so much. It's just for one little dinner party and then…" Ishida Uryuu didn't finish his thought. He didn't need to, really. She nodded affirmatively, showing him that she understood. He remained silent, and took her hand. He looked at the engagement ring thoughtfully.

"Do I look alright?" She asked quietly. It was hard to speak when one of her more serious comrades was looking at her hand so intensely. He stopped and breathed as though he had forgotten to, and looked her in the eyes. He rarely looked her in the eyes, so whenever he did, she knew he was being brutally honest with her in whatever he said. It was the reason it made the red headed girl so nervous.

"You look perfect. I picked everything out myself and it all fits correctly. Is it… not comfortable for you?" He asked. She wanted to sigh; he wasn't answering her question at all. She smiled a little bit to herself, and reminded herself that it was just his personality. Before she had a moment to answer, she heard the door bell ring. She pulled away from him and went to answer it, putting on her best smile.

"Good evening Ishida-san. I'm so glad you could come!" She greeted enthusiastically as she opened the door. The senior Ishida male nodded silently in response. They were more similar than they thought. But she figured it must be an Ishida quality, their stubbornness and their pride. Uryuu had enough pride for the both her and himself. She questioned whether it was safe to have so much pride and honour and seriousness in one little apartment.

"You look very charming in that dress, although I wonder if this is really so formal an occasion for black." Orihime didn't wince, but she wished she could have. It was best to pretend indifference with Ryuuken Ishida, or else it led to an argument between the father and son.

"Today is a very important day, father." Orihime turned and moved out of the entry way so that Ryuuken could enter. Ishida's apartment was large for Japanese standards, but the entry way was only big enough for one person to move through it.

"Well, dinner is ready so we had better eat it before it gets cold then," Orihime said, breaking the silence as the two men stood there. They had an amazing talent for being able to create an awkward silence whenever the two met. She led them to the dinner table that was set and sat down. "Well then… it's so nice to get together with family." Her second attempt to break into conversation seemed to fare better than the first.

"Did you cook dinner, Inoue-san?" Ryuuken asked politely. Inoue laughed quietly and shook her head.

"Oh no, my tastes in spices are very different from yours so I thought it would be best if Ishida-san cooked since he knows your tastes better than I do," She responded brightly. Conversation might have happened then, she realized if she hadn't made the awkward assertion that they knew each other well. Neither of the men at the table responded for a few minutes.

"You still call each other so formally? That is very unusual for a modern engaged couple," Ryuuken commented. Orihime blushed, realizing that he was correct. But still, calling Ishida by his first name for the first time in such a setting was too much to ask for. She had to think quickly.

"Yes, but it is more polite this way," Orihime said quickly. Before Ryuuken could push the issue further, Uryuu put down his fork and interrupted.

"Let us get to the main point of this dinner," Uryuu said seriously. Orihime hesitantly stopped eating and wondered why in the world they couldn't both talk and eat at the same time. Another one of those strange qualities these men possessed.

"Indeed. I can already guess where this is going."

"Father, I intend to marry Inoue-san. So you should not be concerned about my eligibility any longer. I already have Inoue, as you can see." And so the case had finally come out. Orihime waited in silence for one of them to break the silence. Orihime, of course, had no intention of actually marrying her friend Ishida Uryuu. She still loved Kurosaki Ichigo, and furthermore had just finished high school. But she had agreed to- no she had forced Ishida to accept her help. Ishida had not wanted his father to start setting up an engagement but had found no way to dissuade his father from the idea that he could not find his own bride. Why his father had become so insistent suddenly on his marriage was suspicious. But Inoue had her own motives for everything, and Ishida never asked her about them. She felt bad for Ishida Uryuu, forced to pretend he was in love with her. She, who was a horrible person, was using this as a last cry of desperation in her own love life.

Inoue had now spent many adventures, many years and many exams trying to show Kurosaki that he could trust her as an equal and she had hoped that with this realization he might develop feelings for her. He might as well have publicly announced that his feelings were for another person, but she still hoped. If Kurosaki had one small bit of feelings for her in a romantic way, he would know it now. Now that she was publicly engaged to another man.

"I find it interesting that you are going to marry this woman and yet you don't call her by her first name. Furthermore, she obviously doesn't live here. How serious are you about her? Is this just a show for my benefit?"Ryuuken began. It was not Ishida that interrupted him this time, which shocked all three people in the room.

"It wouldn't be proper for me to live with your son before marriage. If you disagree with my traditions, that is one thing. But to say that this is a show is too much. We don't need your blessing to get married." Inoue felt all of her disappointment and anger beginning to come out, so she folded her hands tensely in her lap. She could see from the corner of her eye that there was a flicker of emotions going across Uryuu's face. Ryuuken seemed to smile then and nodded.

"Very well, Inoue-san. If you say it with such passion, then I have to believe you. Please call me about the costs of the wedding. If I recall correctly, you do not have any close relatives to help you on this matter," Ryuuken said as he stood to leave. "Thank you for dinner." And without a goodbye to his only son, he left. Once the door clicked behind him, Orihime let the horror show on her face. Ryuuken's acceptance and blessing was the worst thing they could have received.

"Inoue…" Ishida said quietly. He gently placed his hands on her shoulders where she continued to sit.

"What are we going to do? He was supposed to disown you, or you were supposed to… Nothing went according to your plan! What are we going to do, Ishida-san?" She finally turned to look at him. As she looked into those deep blue eyes, she wanted to cry. It was probably her fault. But she didn't know that Ryuuken would react that way.

"My father likes you. You played your part too well, Inoue. But thank you for your hard work. I will tell him the truth tomorrow and everything will be cleared up."

"No! Ishida-san- Ishida! I'm sure we can do something still. There must be something we can do or say…" She insisted. She stood up so that they were facing each other, standing barely a few inches apart. He could feel her breath, and paused before he spoke.

"Like what? We either tell him the truth or… or actually get married!" Uryuu said, losing his temper. He realized by Orihime's crestfallen expression that he may have gone too far.

"Do you not like me? You make it sound like a terrible thing," Orihime said, still feeling a little sentimental from Kurosaki's lack of interest in her engagement. She was feeling emotionally overhauled by everything, including Ryuuken's cold attitude. She moved to walk into the kitchen, away from him. She felt him pull on her wrist and she stopped without turning around.

"Orihime, it's not that. Orihime, I… I would marry you," Ishida responded darkly. His voice seemed to become deeper sometimes. It made her heart skip a beat in anxiousness.

"Even though I used you? Even if I don't love you? Would you still marry me?" She cried, partly angry. She was angry with herself, and witheverything that was happening. She was ruining everything and like a child throwing a tantrum, she couldn't make it stop. She couldn't calm down. That was when she felt him hug her from behind, and her mind was suddenly silent.

"I know. I know why you did this. I know you don't love me. But I would still marry you and be by your side. So don't keep thinking that you're alone, Orihime." And that was when she began to cry. She turned into him and cried until there was nothing left to cry with.

From that point on, everything had just kept building forward. When Inoue didn't call Ryuuken, he called her three weeks later. And so she continued the game, and so the wedding was planned. And at only twenty, Ishida Orihime was a married woman working in an office. She opened her eyes, and realized her stop was coming up. She could still remember Ichigo and Rukia attending the wedding as an engaged couple. Instead of having a wedding night like normal people, Ishida had been stuck with consoling her the entire night.

Orihime took out her keys and unlocked her apartment door. They shared a two bedroom apartment, because Ryuuken had insisted that Ishida have a study room. The lights were on, and she could see Ishida in the kitchen. He finished his classes much earlier than she got off work, so he often made dinner.

"I'm home," She called. She pulled off her flat working shoes and slipped her feet into slippers. Into the apartment she ventured, looking to see what exactly he was cooking.

"Welcome home, Orihime."

"What are you making?" She asked, realizing that she was very hungry. She hadn't eaten anything since lunch and it was already nine o'clock at night.

"Curry," He replied, raising an eyebrow as she rested her chin on his shoulder to get a better look at said curry.

"Are there strawberries or mangos?" She asked quietly.

"I already cut those up to add to your portion separately." It hadn't taken long to figure out that Orihime's sense of taste was so strange that it was something that needed to be chronicled. Eventually with a note book he had begun to figure out exactly what sorts of strange things she liked.

They ate their meal in silence, and it wasn't until he stood up to bring his plate into the kitchen that she spoke.

"Ishida… no, Uryuu…" She said bashfully. He stopped moving and waited for her to continue. When she didn't, he began to form his own ideas of what she might be about to say.

"Did you forget to sort the garbage properly?" He asked wearily. She shook her head ardently.

"No, it's not that. Maybe I did forget. Anyway, that's not what I was going to say!" She said, sort of put out that he was distracting her from an actually serious conversation. "Uryuu… do you still love me?"

"That depends if you sorted the garbage and put it out on time last night," He said, though he was joking. He sighed before continuing. "Yes, I still love you Orihime. Why?"

"Uhm. Well, I wanted to know if you wanted to… really be married is all."

"…Orihime, I am pretty sure the marriage certificate is real."

"That's not what I meant! Uryuu, sometimes you drive me crazy. But all the same, I do love you. I was afraid that you would stop liking me once you got to know me." Uryuu raised both eyebrows and set his dish back down on the table. It had been a while since she had talked about their marriage this way and it concerned him.

"Orihime, I do know you, and I love you. So stop worrying."

"Then prove it," She responded stubbornly. It must have been the Ishida influence. She never remembered being so stubborn about things before. But she thanked soul society that she hadn't picked up that weird pride thing yet.

Ishida walked over to her, and kissed her earnestly before answering: "I am proving it, and I will continue to do so for the rest of our lives."

* * *

**(A/N)**

So I was knitting a sock, minding my own business when this story popped into my head. And then, it wouldn't let me go on knitting my sock. It's been a long time since I have written Ishihime. I have found that for some reason I lose all inspiration to write romantic stories when I am actually in a relationship so I find it odd that this popped into my head out of absolutely no where. I hope everyone enjoys it nonetheless! I like reviews! Thanks for reading folks. I will be posting a more adult content ending to a more appropriate web site for anyone who notices that the end of the story feels a little cut off. Well it is. For rating purposes.


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